Lovely pictures of lovely birds.

Yes, the lack of bugs doesn't seem to bother most people - some applaud it - but we have to remember that they form the bottom of the food chain. I am going to make a 'bug hotel' with lots of environments this year so there should be some photo opportunities. Let us know when your special ones emerge Derek.

Super detail with that.

A*200 ............. drool !

You will have to do what I will now have to do ..... play with it and see !

I enjoyed the video as well as the result. Thank you.

I take the K5 with me when traveling. As you say, it is super compact. It's usually accompanied by a Tamron A03 28-200 (unusual lens size of a DA 18-55 that produces very good results). It goes into the classic grey with red piping Pentax shoulder bag with an A series 50mm macro (doubles as a walkaround) and a Jobi shoulder sling. Because the K5 is so light (ish) I can get away with putting it onto a small travel tripod that goes into my normal luggage. Collapsed, it's hardly bigger than the bag and I shove it through the fastening straps to carry it. Kindle goes into the rear compartment, travel docs, mobile phone and passport into the front. Small, compact, very secure and very carryable. Just don't forget to remove any bags of silica gel - they show up as potential drug packets when X-rayed, as I discovered to my considerable inconvenience on one occasion!

I realised yesterday why I disabled the status screens on my K5 and K3. It's all well and good having all the information from the top screen on the monitor but I tried to look through the viewfinder of my shiny new K1 and got blasted by extraneous bright light from the monitor beneath where I was looking! Then there was a bright flash as the preview of the image that I had just taken appeared as well. I disabled both of those pronto!

As to there being no need for an IR release, using a cable release means that you are in contact with the camera, be it ever so slightly. When you have set up a complex macro, touching anything at all is the last thing you want, especially when you have walked some distance away to let the residual vibrations from the tripod die down.

The K1 might be a heavy brute (not as bad as Canons!) it is no trouble to hold it as it feels quite perfect in my hand, such that I don't want to put it down! I've already discovered that the Tamron adaptall 35-80 01A works a treat with it. I'm looking forward to seeing what some of my Russian glass will do. I was a bit worried about the price of purpose made lenses for it (I still am) so I have hopes for my heritage collection.

First and last ones - I'm always a sucker for good B&Ws

I love the PLM and use it in preference to the standard 55-300. I didn't like it at first until I realised it was forward focusing. A good dollop of adjustment and it's been right as rain since. You won't get DA* out of it but does a good job for the price.